SC disapproves political drama over Rajoana issue

The Supreme Court has strongly disapproved of the political drama enacted to save Balwant Singh Rajoana from the gallows in the assassination of the then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and 17 others in 1995.

The Supreme Court has strongly disapproved of the political drama enacted to save Balwant Singh Rajoana from the gallows in the assassination of the then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh and 17 others in 1995.

The court observation came on Thursday while hearing a petition by another death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar whose mercy petition had been rejected last year.

Rajoana had neither contested his death sentence awarded on August 1, 2007 nor filed the mercy plea to save his life.

The Union home ministry on Wednesday however stayed his hanging which a Chandigarh court had ordered to be carried out on Saturday on the mercy plea made by Sikh religious body SGPC and submitted to President Pratibha Patil by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday itself.

The Supreme Court said a person who murdered a chief minister was getting political support. But then asked, "How can parties which garnered support from these people leave them."

The Supreme Court also ruled over whatever happened in the last four days, saying it was a telling situation... in a particular state.

Senior counsel Harish Salve has also condemned political and religious interference in the administration of justice.

The apex court had earlier commented that Dhananjay Chatterjee was hanged because he had no political backing. Chatterjee, who was sentenced to death for rape and murder of a girl in West Bengal, was executed in August 2004.